The present invention relates generally to video programs on demand, and more particularly, a system and method for displaying near video on demand programs.
Video on demand services provide viewers with video programming such as select movies or television programs whenever the viewer desires to view the program. A new video sequence is broadcast immediately over the network upon viewer request. Video on demand services are often provided in hotels or other locations having internal wide band networks. Video on demand is typically not provided by broadcast networks since a video on demand system requires an extremely large sized data transmission system and broadcast networks have access only to a limited bandwidth. However, with limited bandwidth availability networks may broadcast video programs starting at various times, such as every half hour or hour. This is referred to as near video on demand (NVOD). An NVOD system transmits program data to a plurality of channels at predetermined time intervals. In NVOD programming, the network broadcasts duplicate versions of a program with the starting time of each version offset by a predetermined increment (i.e., time-shifted).
In order for a network to provide NVOD programs at regular intervals, the network must broadcast the programs on a number of different channels. For example, if a ninety minute program is broadcast for viewing every thirty minutes, the network must broadcast the program on three channels Ch1, Ch2, Ch3 time shifted as shown in Table I.
The program is broken up into three thirty minute segments S1, S2, and S3. The first segment S1 includes the first thirty minutes of the program, the second segment S2 includes the second thirty minutes of the program, and the third segment S3 includes the last thirty minutes of the program. Thus, at time t0, a viewer may select channel 1 (Ch1) and view the entire program starting from the beginning of the program. At time t1, a viewer wishing to view the program from the beginning selects channel 3 (Ch3). Similarly, a viewer may select channel 2 (Ch2) at time t2 to view the entire program from the beginning.
As can be observed from the foregoing, as the length of a program increases or the interval between presentations is reduced, the number of channels increases, resulting in an increase in bandwidth and cost for providing NVOD on broadcast networks.
There is, therefore, a need for a more efficient system and method for displaying NVOD programs on broadcast networks.
A system and method for displaying near video on demand programs are disclosed. A method of the present invention is for displaying near video on demand programs broadcast over a network system to a receiver operable to record at least one channel while playing another channel or a prerecorded program. The program is broken into a plurality of segments which are broadcast over two or more channels during a plurality of time intervals. The method generally includes displaying a first segment of the program as it is broadcast at a first time interval and recording a second segment of the program at the first time interval if the second segment is not scheduled for broadcast at a second time interval. The method further includes recording a third segment of the program at one of the first and second time intervals if the third segment is not scheduled for broadcast at a third time interval. The steps of recording and displaying are repeated for remaining segments of the program until the last segment of the program is displayed.
In another aspect of the invention, a method for scheduling broadcast of a near video on demand program generally comprises selecting a channel for broadcast of a first program segment for each of the plurality of time intervals and scheduling the remaining program segments for either broadcast or recording from one of the channels during one or more of the time intervals so that a program can be viewed in a continuous sequence from the first segment to a last segment of the program.
A system of the present invention is for displaying near video on demand programs generally comprises a receiver operable to receive the programs, a recording device operable to record a segment broadcast on one of the channels, and a playback device operable to play the recorded segment. The system further includes a processor operable to direct the recording device to record one of the segments during one of the time intervals and switch between the channels and the playback device to display the segments so that the program can be viewed in a continuous sequence from a first segment to a last segment of the program.